Senate body for 3rd party audit of payments to IPPs

ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power has directed for carrying out third party audit of payment made to Independent Power Producers (IPPs), noting the difference between the figures of State Bank of Pakistan and Ministry of Water and Power.Chairing the committee meeting on Monday, Senator Zahid Khan observed that some parts of the country are facing 18-20 hours loadshedding a day despite government’s paying Rs500 billion to IPPs to clear the circular debt which has unfortunately again surged to Rs194 billion.He noted that power situation could be improved easily if government spends Rs200 billion on upgrading transmission and distribution systems, as proposed by the committee. Zahid said if the government has failed in ensuring sufficient power even in the winter then the situation is set to worsen in the summer, making people’s life more miserable. Senator Mohsin Laghari said that agricultural sector in southern Punjab has been badly hit by the power outages.

This news was published in The Nation newspaper. Read complete newspaper of 21-Jan-2014 here.